11 February 2008
by Simon Quicke
The result of the Business Software Alliance campaign in Glasgow has been to expose continuing levels of apathy towards the question of illegal software.
The BSA ran a 30-day software check late last year for those companies that might be using illegal products, during which time it promised it would not take any action. However, 41 businesses were identified after that period as still using dodgy software.
Julie Strawson, UK committee chair at the BSA, said the positive message from the Glasgow campaign was that more people were understanding the importance of respecting intellectual property and were reporting companies that used pirated software.
"The 41 companies are qualified leads [that came out of the advertising campaign] and the good thing is more people are reporting piracy than ever before," she said.
Strawson added that what was really needed to make a difference to the levels of apathy around illegal software was more action by the government.
"Until we get tougher penalties, businesses are not going to engage," she said.
Those sentiments have been echoed by others in the software industry, with John Lovelock at the Federation Against Software Theft also calling for more action to protect intellectual property.
Those in the channel pushing legitimate product come up against a level of indifference about pirate and counterfeit software not just from customers but also from resellers.
Recent research carried out by MicroScope for Microsoft revealed that one in three resellers did not feel piracy had an impact on them.
One source at a distributor said that those resellers handling counterfeit products often knew what they were doing, even if they denied it when caught, and undermined the authorised channel.
"It is a question of risk and reward and they have decided that it is better to take the risks of being caught and get the rewards of landing a sale that has been gained at the expense of their rivals," he said.
He added that the risks for the channel were also too low, with sub distributors that were able to make millions selling illegal software making out-of-court settlements of thousands that they could easily afford.
The belief that there is no direct impact is not backed up by BSA figures, which recently claimed that a 10 per cent drop in piracy would put £1.3bn back into the UK economy and support an additional 33,000 jobs (MicroScope 28 January).
The BSA campaign to focus on different cities moves to Manchester next but no firm date has been set for the start of that campaign.
